Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
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All of us dream about following our dreams. We are told over and over to live the life we were meant to live, to follow our passion and do what gives you life.
But that is sometimes not very easy. It takes guts. It’s risky, and it’s a whole lot more hard work and determination than most of us realise.
The lyrical wisdom of Dr. Seuss in Oh, The Places You’ll Go has me wishing this wasn’t always the case:
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
Sometimes I don’t want to! There are seasons where I wish that someone else could make all my decisions for me. I conveniently look to God, not because I believe He actually knows best, but because its easier to blame someone else when things aren’t going right. I’m not wishing that I had an easy life without hardship. Hardship I can handle by the grace of God. It’s doing what is right no matter what that is hard. It’s following the heart and ways of God that is hard. Choosing to do so beyond what the world says, or beyond what I believe I deserve.
God gave us the choice. He left this world in our hands. Too often and far too easily we want to pass the hot potato to someone else so we don’t have to take responsibility for the condition of our world, our country, our city, our neighborhood, our family, or our own heart.
I am deeply challenged to look at myself and ask, what is the direction I choose? Will it be one of trust and reckless obedience or will I stand still, too afraid to move? Too fearful of what might go wrong, what might fail, how I might get hurt, or that I am simply going the wrong way?
Luckily, God did not send us on this journey alone. I love the passage in John 14:15-17 where Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit. “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This friend is the Spirit of Truth” (The Message).
I am not alone on this journey. You are not alone. Our Friend, the Holy Spirit, is with us always, helping us find our feet.